Tori Spelling has sparked a ton of outrage after posting a photo of her 8-year-old daughter, Hattie, dressed as “McQuisha,” a character many found to be a stereotypical mockery of “ghetto” black women. Like many folks around the world, Tori and her family are , and it looks like she’s found some pretty questionable activities for her kids to do to kill time in quarantine. In a since-deleted Instagram story, the actress shared a photo of Hattie wearing a bandana on her head with Cheetos tied around her fingers—meant to emulate fake nails—and explained the character Hattie was pretending to be.
“Days kept inside we have to get creative,” Tori wrote in the caption. “Hattie has become McQuisha in her cheeto extension nails.” Yikes. The story garnered a ton of backlash, with many calling Tori out for dressing her daughter up as an offensive caricature of “ghetto” black women and encouraging racist stereotypes.
Tori has since apologized for the post, insisting that she didn’t intend to do any harm.
“I posted a story the other day that upset many of you,” she wrote on her Instagram story. “I’m truly sorry. That was NOT the intention at ALL. Hattie is 8. We watch and adore old reruns of ‘Martin.’ She loves the character Shanaynay. She made up that name with “Mc” bc her last name is McDermott. She was reenacting the over the top fun and amazing character from ‘Martin.’ She is innocent and didn’t mean anything by it. I should have thought about how it could have been perceived and misconstrued before I posted. I did not. I’m truly sorry.” Social isolation is really making everyone lose their sense.